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The Code of the Street: A Quantitative Assessment of Elijah Anderson's Subculture of Violence Thesis and Its Contribution to Youth Violence Research
Abstract
Based on extensive field research, Elijah Anderson argues that the behavior of many youths is influenced by a street culture or “code” that prescribes violent reactions to interpersonal attacks and shows of disrespect. Although Anderson’s account has been well received by the criminological community, questions remain about the validity and generality of his findings. To address these issues, the authors review other (mostly quantitative) studies of youth violence and consider whether the findings of these studies are consistent with Anderson’s account. The authors also conduct analyses to determine whether Anderson’s observations can help to extend the existing body of quantitative research and, hence, further our understanding of youth violence. Overall, the results of this assessment suggest that Anderson’s observations provide valuable insight into the general problem of youth violence and that future research in this area would benefit from greater attention to the social processes he has served to highlight.
... For example, fighting or assaulting someone in front of his or her peers may increase their respect for the perpetrator, thereby reducing the odds of being victimized by the same peers. Studies testing the core propositions of the theory have generally supported a relationship between the code of the street and various forms of violent and non-violent behaviors (Allen and Lo 2012;Brezina et al. 2004;Henson, Swartz, and Reyns 2017;Mears et al. 2013;Moule and Fox 2021), including victimization (McNeeley and Wilcox 2015). ...
... Because this body of research has identified many individual-level risk factors that are related to one's social environment, Anderson's code of the street framework may be a particularly appropriate theoretical lens through which scholars can understand IPV. Elijah Anderson's (1999) code of the street renewed interest in research devoted to understanding subcultures of violence, emphasizing violent attitudes (Brezina et al. 2004;Heimer 1997;Simons 2006, 2010). According to Anderson (1999), the code of the street is a set of informal rules determining how violence is used to build and maintain respect. ...
... Moreover, Fader and León (2024) address the focus of race in their systematic review of Code of the Streets, which reveals that attitudes related to the code are not restricted to Black inner-city adolescents, as Anderson (1999) originally suggested. Instead, the framework has been successfully applied to various groups, including college students (Henson, Swartz, and Reyns 2017;Intravia et al. 2017), community, and school adolescents (Brezina et al. 2004;Carson and Esbensen 2014;Drummond, Bolland, and Ann Harris 2011;Matsuda et al. 2013;McNeeley and Hoeben 2017;Simons et al. 2012), and samples from Europe (Brookman et al. 2011;Holligan 2015;Kurtenbach and Rauf 2019). We agree with the assertion that it is not race that serves as the underlying explanation of criminal behavior, and this distinction is necessary to avoid the problematic view that being Black is inherently linked to criminality (see Zuberi and Bonilla-Silva 2008 for a discussion about issues with using race as an independent variable). ...
... Quantitative studies set out to test several of Anderson's arguments based on large-scale data (Beier, 2016;Berg, Stewart, Brunson, & Simons, 2012;Brezina, Agnew, Cullen, & Wright, 2004; Ernst & Lenkewitz, 2020; Markowitz & Felson, 1998;Stewart, Simons, Conger, & Scaramella, 2002;Stewart & Simons, 2010). For example, Berg and colleagues (2012) showed that, in neighborhoods where street culture is more prevalent, individuals react more violently, independent of their individual acceptance of the code. ...
... Especially in disadvantaged areas with precarious law enforcement, the code of the street emerges as a system of informal rules that guides interpersonal and public behavior, including the use of violence as an important means to secure and gain respect (Anderson, 1999, p. 33). Quantitative studies corroborated several of Anderson's arguments (Berg et al., 2012;Brezina et al., 2004;Markowitz & Felson, 1998;Stewart et al., 2002). Among other findings, Berg and colleagues (2012) showed that, in neighborhoods where street culture is more prevalent, individuals react more violently, independent of their individual acceptance of the code. ...
... Elijah Anderson's (1999) ethnographic work on the "Code of the Street" described how individuals use violence to defend and gain respect in violent neighborhoods. Several studies aimed to provide large-scale quantitative evidence for key tenets of Anderson's theory (Beier, 2016;Berg et al., 2012;Brezina et al., 2004;Ernst & Lenkewitz, 2020;Markowitz & Felson, 1998;Stewart et al., 2002;Stewart & Simons, 2010). However, a major challenge has been to capture the interplay of individual, situational, and contextual influences. ...
Elijah Anderson's (1999) seminal work on the "Code of the Street" details how individuals use violence to defend and gain respect in violent neighborhoods. We provide this theory with more explicit choice-theoretic micro-foundations that allows us to derive hypotheses on how individuals’ willingness to use violence depends on their street code beliefs, the strength of provocation, and the exposure to violence in their neighborhoods. To evaluate these hypotheses, we use data from a large-scale criminological survey of 10th graders in 46 schools located in five neighboring cities in Germany. Our analysis focuses on violent intentions in a neighborhood-based scenario that randomly varied the strength of provocation and uses geo-coded police-recorded data to measure the level of violence in respondents’ neighborhoods. Our results suggest a complex interplay of environmental, situational, and individual variables. While provocation strength generally increases violent intentions, adolescents who reject the street code and live in low-violence neighborhood report no violent intentions even when strongly provoked. Among adolescents with strong street code beliefs, responses to provocations vary depending on their residential environment. We discuss implications for choice-theoretic accounts of youth violence and methodological challenges of linking scenarios to social contexts.
... prior research has indicated street code adherence could be a product of experiences of strain (Brezina et al. 2004;Stewart and Simons 2006), discrimination and racism (Intravia et al. 2013;Moule et al. 2015), socioeconomic status (Stewart and Simons 2006), police discrimination and distrust (Intravia et al. 2013;Moule et al. 2019;Piquero et al. 2011), previous victimization (Brezina et al. 2004), involvement in gangs (Matsuda et al. 2012), and low self-control (McNeeley, Charles Meldrum, and Hoskin 2018;Piquero et al. 2011). ...
... prior research has indicated street code adherence could be a product of experiences of strain (Brezina et al. 2004;Stewart and Simons 2006), discrimination and racism (Intravia et al. 2013;Moule et al. 2015), socioeconomic status (Stewart and Simons 2006), police discrimination and distrust (Intravia et al. 2013;Moule et al. 2019;Piquero et al. 2011), previous victimization (Brezina et al. 2004), involvement in gangs (Matsuda et al. 2012), and low self-control (McNeeley, Charles Meldrum, and Hoskin 2018;Piquero et al. 2011). ...
... Several studies have indicated Black and Latinx individuals were more likely to adhere to the code of the street than White individuals Moule et al. 2019;Taylor et al. 2010). Yet, others have noted no association between race and the code of the street (Brezina et al. 2004;Intravia et al. 2016;Keith and Griffiths 2013;Piquero et al. 2011), while still others have noted racial differences in agreement with street code values, but that the code of the street measured an orientation toward violence across race and geographic location (Taylor et al. 2010). ...
A race and gender specific examination of the theoretical influences of code of the street adherence.
... Based on Anderson's (1999 ) C ode of the Street, we anticipated that individuals who experienced victimization would not withdraw from criminogenic networks. Rather, the criminogenic subculture would call for an in-kind response (see Brezina et al. 2004 ) that would result in an increase in criminogenic ties of various types. For example, individuals may respond to victimization experiences by increasing their confl ict with others. ...
... Second, the current study used longitudinal data to examine whether the experience of serious victimization was associated with a person's future network characteristics. Based on Anderson's (1999 ) Code of the Street and the expectations in criminogenic networks that victimization necessitates an in-kind response ( Brezina et al. 2004 ), we anticipated that victimization would be a catalyst for the accumulation of additional criminogenic ties. ...
... Taken together, serious victimization matters for the shape of a person's network, but researchers may uncover diff erent answers regarding network shape depending on the types of ties measured and where these ties are established. For individuals who experience serious victimization, expanding their networks may be a way to rally support to retaliate against others ( Brezina et al. 2004 ) or at least to prevent future victimization such as "getting rolled" ( Anderson 1999 ). Given the risk of injury in prison ( Pyrooz and Decker 2019 ), those with histories of serious victimization may build more co-off ending connections to increase criminal social capital (e.g., information about possible threats, friends who have their backs). ...
Reducing explanations of victimization to a person’s risky lifestyle has stalled growth in theories of victimization. Drawing from Carlo Morselli’s contributions to social network analysis, the current study extended past research on community-based co-offending networks and victimization in two ways. First, the current study more comprehensively measured a person’s criminogenic network by also examining the contribution of conflict ties and social ties to victimization. Second, we investigated whether serious victimization was prospectively associated with social network characteristics. Data were used on 99 participants from the Incarcerated Serious Violent Young Offender Study who had criminogenic connections within the city of Surrey, BC. Time-dependent covariate survival analysis was used to model the relationship between network characteristics and time to victimization. Time-series ordinary least squares regression was used to examine whether serious victimization predicted network characteristics. Participants with a greater number of co-offending ties experienced serious victimization significantly later. As evidence of the reciprocal nature of the victimization–network relationship, victimization predicted a greater number of future criminogenic connections in the co-offending tie, social tie, and prison tie networks. Findings have implications for network-based intervention models.
... Although past research has begun to identify the individual-level and contextual factors associated with the adoption of street code attitudes (Brezina et al., 2004;Henson et al., 2017;Intravia et al., 2014;Kurtenbach & Rauf, 2019;McNeeley et al., 2018;, several important questions remain to be explored. In the current study, we assess the association between an individual's temperament and their adherence to the street code, controlling for a host of other factors shown to be related to street code adoption. ...
... Behavior associated with adherence to the street code includes demanding respect, projecting a certain image of "toughness," and responding to perceived disrespect with the use of violence. Scholars have postulated that those who adhere to the codes of the streets are not simply deviant or possess maladaptive traits; in fact, it has been shown that many of them believe following such rules is essential to survival and acts as a potential buffer against violent victimization (Brezina et al., 2004;. Although adhering to street codes serves a functional purpose in the context of the neighborhood environment, it has also been shown to be associated with antisocial behavior. ...
... Indeed, some of the existing research suggests that males are more likely to believe in the code Taylor et al., 2010), while other findings suggest fewer sex-based differences exist (Keith & Griffiths, 2014;. Similarly, the bulk of research has demonstrated fewer differences across race than may be expected given Anderson's description of the code in inner-city Philadelphia (Brezina et al., 2004;Intravia et al., 2017;Keith & Griffiths, 2014;Piquero et al., 2012), although there is some evidence that Blacks are more likely to ascribe to the street code (Taylor et al., 2010). ...
Although Elijah Anderson’s code of the street thesis has received a great deal of scholarly attention, fewer studies have examined the characteristics associated with its adoption. Existing evidence is supportive of Anderson’s initial observations, however, less is known about the association between personality and emotional characteristics and adopting street code norms. The current study assesses the role of DeLisi and Vaughn’s difficult temperament index in the adoption of the street code among a sample of juvenile justice-involved youth. Results indicated youth with more difficult temperaments, characterized by lower levels of effortful control and higher levels of negative emotionality, were more likely to report greater street code adherence. Implications for juvenile justice policy and future research are discussed.
... To our knowledge, only urban ethnographers have found that Black males express their masculinity through the Cool Pose (Oliver 2003). However, scholars have examined the degree to which Blacks support the "code of the street" and whether their level of support predicts greater criminal behavior (Brezina et al. 2004;Intravia et al. 2014;Moule et al. 2015;Stewart, Schreck, and Simons 2006;Stewart, Simons, and Conger 2002). In addition, scholars have examined whether there is a gendering of violence and a gendering of violent attitudes among Blacks (Mullins, Wright, and Jacobs 2004). 2 However, this body of research tests only the intra-group variation in the degree to which Blacks support the use of retaliatory violence. ...
... Similarly, Piquero et al. (2012) analyzed a nationwide survey of 385 adults and reported that Blacks were as likely as were non-Blacks to adopt the "code of the street" after controlling for other covariates (e.g., age, gender, marital status, and employment). In addition, Brezina et al. (2004) analyzed the male subsample of the National Youth Survey (NYS) and found that Black racial status had a weak negative association with support for retaliatory violence (e.g., it is sometimes necessary to get into a fight to uphold your honor or to put someone in his or her place). Of note, Brezina et al. (2004) also tested for possible interactions between Black racial status, socioeconomic status, and urban residence and found no significant effects. ...
... In addition, Brezina et al. (2004) analyzed the male subsample of the National Youth Survey (NYS) and found that Black racial status had a weak negative association with support for retaliatory violence (e.g., it is sometimes necessary to get into a fight to uphold your honor or to put someone in his or her place). Of note, Brezina et al. (2004) also tested for possible interactions between Black racial status, socioeconomic status, and urban residence and found no significant effects. ...
Scholars argue that racial oppression uniquely causes Black males to construct a definition of their masculinity—the “Cool Pose”—that is different from White male masculinity. In this paper, using a nationally representative survey conducted in 2018, we examined whether young Black males were more likely than White male youths to feel greater pressure to conform to the Cool Pose. We analyzed six measures of the Cool Pose. We found no evidence that young Black males were more likely than White male youths to feel greater pressure to use violence if provoked. However, we found that young Black males were more likely than White male youths to feel greater pressure to be physically and emotionally strong, play sports, and to dominate or control others. We conclude that research needs to move beyond idiosyncratic accounts of Black males’ cultural adaptations in order to explicate the developmental processes that affect how Black males living in a systemically racist society express their masculinity.
... As such, research on individual level predictors of street code attitudes has explored demographics consistent with the individuals highlighted in Anderson's work in order to understand how these characteristics infl uence one's likelihood of embracing the street code. Many studies, however, have limited samples that focus on African Americans, younger individuals, and/or males ( Brezina, Agnew, Cullen, & Wright, 2004 ;Intravia, Wol , Stewart, & Simons, 2014 ;Moule, Burt, Stewart, & Simons, 2015 ). Although these studies may examine samples that are consistent with the specifi c demographics outlined by Anderson, it is more di cult to assess which demographic groups, if any, are most likely to adopt the street code belief system. ...
... On the other hand, assessments that use more diverse samples of race/ethnicity or gender often dummy code for these characteristics, with "African American" and "male" being the reference groups, respectively. With few exceptions ( Intravia, Wol , Gibbs, & Piquero, 2017 ;Intravia et al., 2018 ;McNeeley, Meldrum, & Hoskin, 2018 ), studies that control for race (e.g., African American) either provide no support ( Brezina et al., 2004 ;Keith & Gri ths, 2014 ) or show that the signifi cance of race is eliminated once other factors are controlled for in the analysis ( Piquero et al., 2012 ). Similar patterns are also evident among males adopting street code attitudes, with some studies showing that male is an important predictor ( Piquero et al., 2012 ;Keith & Gri ths, 2014 ;Intravia et al., 2018 ;McNeeley et al., 2018 ) and others showing there is no signifi cance Intravia et al., 2014Intravia et al., , 2017 ). ...
... In their study, the authors found that being in a street family structure was positively related to adopting street code beliefs, whereas being in a decent family structure yielded no signifi cant e ect. Other studies that controlled for characteristics such as family structure (e.g., one versus two parent household), family socioeconomic status, parental supervision, and parental discipline have found little to no support that family and parenting factors are related to adopting the street code ( Brezina et al., 2004 ;Keith & Griffi ths, 2014 ;Moule et al., 2015 ). Anderson (1994Anderson ( , 1999 argues that the code of the street is a cultural orientation that is found in disadvantaged, urban locales that consist of primarily African American residents. ...
Criminal or delinquent subcultures symbolize certain groups in society that have norms, values, or attitudes that are conducive to deviance, crime, and/or violence. Dating back to the works of the Chicago School in the early- and mid-twentieth century, the study of criminal and delinquent subcultures has long been of interest to sociologists and criminologists ( Thrasher, 1927 /1936; Cohen, 1955 ; Miller, 1958 ;). More recently, Elijah Anderson’s (1994 , 1999 ) code of the street thesis on criminal values, and violent attitudes in particular, has led to a renewed interest in understanding subcultures of violence. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the empirical work that focuses on the causes and consequences of streetcode attitudes. The chapter is divided into five main sections: (1) a brief history of criminal and delinquent subcultures, (2) an overview of the street code, how different family structures embrace this value system,
and the characteristics of the code, (3) research on the causes of street code attitudes, (4) research on the consequences of those who embrace the code, and (5) a conclusion summarizing the street code research and providing suggestions for future avenues of inquiry.
... 36) because they have wholeheartedly embraced a street lifestyle. When they have children, code adopters pass on its expectations and assumptions to their sons and daughters (Brezina, Agnew, Cullen, & Wright, 2004), creating a family cycle that perpetuates code-based street behavior. The antithesis of the street-oriented family, according to Anderson, is the "decent" family, one that lives by fairly mainstream values and rears children according to moral dictates of the larger society. ...
... Co-occurring gun carrying and drug trafficking, as a response or adaptation to structural deficiencies in a community, is only facilitated by the typical street culture embodied in the code of the street (Anderson, 1999;Brezina et al., 2004;Kubrin, 2005). First learning the code during childhood, youths internalize it as teenagers-accepting that status, respect, and "manhood" must be vied for and earned on the streets (Anderson, 1999). ...
... First learning the code during childhood, youths internalize it as teenagers-accepting that status, respect, and "manhood" must be vied for and earned on the streets (Anderson, 1999). The code's appeal among young African American men reflects a human need for dignity, respect, and status; the code comprises social beliefs of the same type that the larger conventional society offers its youth and largely denies to inner-city youth (Anderson, 1999;Brezina et al., 2004;. Anderson (1999) argued that the code of the street is the bridge that connects such denial (and the individual-level disadvantages that it engenders) to drug dealing and gun carrying by urban male youths (especially, African Americans). ...
... Moreover, Rich and Grey (2005) speculated that a disrupted sense of safety might mediate retaliation after being victimized. In support of Rich and Grey's findings, Brezina et al. (2004) found that fear of victimization was correlated with violent behavior among adolescents. Research findings have also found that the impact of adherence to the code of the street on violence was elevated by several factors, including a lack of paternal warmth, anger, narcissism, homelessness, violent peers, and negative attitudes about police (Baron, 2016;Brezina et al., 2004;Rich & Grey, 2005). ...
... In support of Rich and Grey's findings, Brezina et al. (2004) found that fear of victimization was correlated with violent behavior among adolescents. Research findings have also found that the impact of adherence to the code of the street on violence was elevated by several factors, including a lack of paternal warmth, anger, narcissism, homelessness, violent peers, and negative attitudes about police (Baron, 2016;Brezina et al., 2004;Rich & Grey, 2005). ...
The role of self-compassion in relation to code of the street, psychopathic features, and masculinity was examined among a sample of 207 African American men. Participants were recruited online through the MTurk website. Using correlational and Preacher and Hayes (2008) bootstrapping analyses, results show that masculinity was positively correlated with code of the street but not self-compassion or psychopathy. The correlational analyses also revealed that self-compassion displayed a negative correlation with code of the street and psychopathy. Code of the street and psychopathy were also found to be positively associated. The mediational analysis demonstrated that self-compassion mediated the relationship between the code of the street and psychopathy. The potential utilization of self-compassion as a transforming concept is discussed.
... Yet, other authors report that violence is a signal that serves to communicate a toughness reputation and avoid being victimized. This idea has been proposed independently in a variety of fields: ethnography [22,23], sociology [24], cultural psychology [25] and evolutionary psychology [26]. On this view, violence also has long-term benefits and does not necessarily qualify as a short-term strategy. ...
... Violence is commonly assumed-for instance, in the classic Hawk-Dove model [39]-to allow an agent to take a resource by force while facing a physical risk. In addition to these assumptions, we incorporate the idea that violence has reputational consequences as a 'toughness signal' [22][23][24][25][26], reducing the probability of being exploited. We thus focus on interpersonal violence involving physical harm to others for instrumental or reputational motives, rather than other forms of violence, like self-harm, child abuse, intimate partner violence or warfare. ...
There is massive variation in rates of violence across time and space. These rates are positively associated with economic deprivation and inequality. They also tend to display a degree of local persistence, or ‘enduring neighbourhood effects’. Here, we identify a single mechanism that can produce all three observations. We formalize it in a mathematical model, which specifies how individual-level processes generate the population-level patterns. Our model assumes that agents try to keep their level of resources above a ‘desperation threshold’, to reflect the intuitive notion that one of people's priorities is to always meet their basic needs. As shown in previous work, being below the threshold makes risky actions, such as property crime, beneficial. We simulate populations with heterogeneous levels of resources. When deprivation or inequality is high, there are more desperate individuals, hence a higher risk of exploitation. It then becomes advantageous to use violence, to send a ‘toughness signal’ to exploiters. For intermediate levels of poverty, the system is bistable and we observe hysteresis : populations can be violent because they were deprived or unequal in the past, even after conditions improve. We discuss implications of our findings for policy and interventions aimed at reducing violence.
... Yet, other authors report that violence is a signal that serves to communicate a toughness reputation and avoid being victimised. This idea has been proposed independently in a variety of fields: ethnography (22,23), sociology (24), cultural psychology (25) and evolutionary psychology (26). On this view, violence also has long-term benefits, and does not necessarily qualify as a short-term strategy. ...
... Violence is commonly assumed -for instance, in the classic Hawk-Dove model (38) -to allow an agent to take a resource by force, while facing a physical risk. In addition to these assumptions, we incorporate the idea that violence has reputational consequences as a 'toughness signal' (22)(23)(24)(25)(26), reducing the probability of being exploited. We thus focus on interpersonal violence involving physical harm to others for instrumental or reputational motives, rather than other forms of violence, like self-harm, child abuse, intimate partner violence, or warfare. ...
There is massive variation in rates of violence across time and space. These rates are positively associated with economic deprivation and inequality. They also tend to display a degree of local persistence, or ‘enduring neighbourhood effects’. Here, we identify a single mechanism that can produce all three observations. We formalise it in a mathematical model, which specifies how individual-level processes generate the population-level patterns. Our model assumes that agents try to keep their level of resources above a ‘desperation threshold’, to reflect the intuitive notion that one of people's priorities is to always keep their head above water. As shown in previous work, being below the threshold makes risky actions, such as property crime, beneficial. We simulate populations with heterogeneous levels of resources. When deprivation or inequality is high, there are more desperate individuals, hence a higher risk of exploitation. It then becomes advantageous to use violence, to send a “toughness signal” to exploiters. For intermediate levels of poverty, the system is bistable and we observe hysteresis: populations can be violent solely because they were deprived or unequal in the past, even after conditions improve. We discuss implications of our findings for policy and interventions aimed at reducing violence.
... For those with a criminal record, many of the cases revealed a history of family violence or domestic abuse. Parents who adopt a "code of the street" mentality with their parenting, are characterized by harsh discipline, hostility, physical and verbal abuse, antisocial behavior, and child neglect, otherwise called "street parenting" Stewart et al. 2002Brezina et al. 2004). Stewart's et al. (2002) research linked street parenting to youth violence, or teens adopting street code values. ...
... Anderson warns that a ''child must go with what groups are available, and a child from a decent home can easily be sucked up by the streets' ' (2000: 98). Despite a good upbringing, if all a child has to interact with are violent peers who have adopted the street code, then the child is more likely to adopt these codes as normative beliefs and display higher levels of violence Brezina et al. 2004;Drummond et al. 2011). This is especially true in neighborhoods with a high presence of gangs and youths in gangs. ...
This study explored how Hispanic youth (ages 13-21 years) living in low-income neighborhoods of Florida defined resiliency and expressed agency navigating personal challenges and neighborhood adversity in pursuit of success. From the standpoint of the participants, this study focused on how youths: 1) judge the quality of life in their neighborhoods and the opportunities available for them, 2) identify personal aspirations for themselves and 3) identify what resilient factors allowed them to face the challenges and barriers of their daily lives to pursue this aspiration. This study takes into account the structural barriers that create inequities to examine how personal assets (e.g., familial and cultural values, self-esteem, and life experience) and external resources (e.g., social support, neighborhood resources, and political climate) affect youth behavior and resilience. Despite the participants living in similar neighborhoods with similar opportunities, the relationship between resources and assets exposed varying levels of resiliency, self-confidence (i.e., self-esteem), and agency against personal and structural challenges in their lives. Drawing from a critical medical anthropology (CMA) theory and resilience theory to examine both agency and resilience, this study designed a model called the “Youth Agency and Resiliency model” which consists of two perspectives: 1) the foundational assets (e.g., life experience, self-esteem, personal talents) and resources (e.g., social support, political climate, neighborhood environment) that contribute to an individual’s sense of agency, defining an aspiration, and perception of their surrounding and own self-worth and 2) how that sense of surrounding and self-worth affects their ability to take action (i.e. agentic action) and sustain resiliency to reach that aspiration.
Participant observation took place over two years (2016-2018), focusing on youth from two adjacent low-income rural communities in Florida. Using community-based participatory research methods, a total of 127 Hispanic youths were included in this study who participated in only one data collection activity. In total, forty-eight participants completed semi-structured interviews, forty-three participated in four focus groups, and thirty-six completed community perception surveys that included questions about neighborhood, opportunities for youth, challenges and barriers, and self-described plans for attaining goals.
This study revealed that out of 127 participants, 18 (14%) were able to both identify a long-term personal aspiration and actively were working towards that goal (displaying resilience) or were close to achieving that goal (“positively resilient”). The improvements youths identified as needed to improve resilience and success included strong social supports (e.g., presence of role models), recreational spaces, and increased educational/ economic opportunities geared towards youths’ interests. For the 18 Hispanic youth who self-identified as resilient and were actively working towards their goals, the factors with the strongest correlations to positive resilience were: 1) access to opportunities (both academic and economic); 2) strong social support from family and mentors and; 3) high self-esteem that supported agentic action to pursue their goals. Youth violence involving fighting was revealed to be a hidden resilience in a large majority of youth studied, enhancing self-esteem and expressions of resilience. All these resilience-enhancing factors played a protective role in overcoming the negative influences of peers or challenges faced within their own neighborhoods and influenced agency and self-esteem amongst youth to take action. The study also examined the individual-level challenges that inhibited resiliency in most of the youth in this study. A sense of hopelessness was the strongest factor that kept many youth from formulating or pursuing a long-term goal, with factors such as lack of opportunities and resources to support those goals (structural), lack of familial support (resources) and low self-esteem (individual capacity), coupled with underlying mental stress and emotional trauma. This study contributes to the literature on resilience and agency amongst minority youths by adding new resilience-enhancing factors to consider when working within disadvantaged neighborhoods. The study made the distinction between family support and family cohesion, with the former being a stronger resilience enhancer when it coincides with youth’s goals and aspirations, a distinction not made in any resilience literature. This study added a holistic and youth-perspective approach to how youths navigate hostile environments in their own defined resilient ways. This study was also the first to fuse resilience theory and critical medical anthropology theory to create a new youth agency and resilience framework model for working with young minority groups.
... This coding uses a similar basis to previous translations of qualitative research into quantitative methods, notably Muir's (1979) assessment of officer personality schemas transferred to an empirical test (Snipes & Mastrofski, 1990) and Anderson's (2000) Code of the Street concepts examined via survey (Brezina et al., 2004). Although factor analysis was attempted on the state law indices, it did not produce a measure that explained a meaningful fraction of the variance or met the other requirements for exploratory factor analysis (EFA). ...
While the public debates whether law enforcement has a problem with mis- or over-using force, the field lacks critical information concerning how often officers use force when interacting with citizens. Moreover, researchers have not examined how differences in how states restrict officers’ ability to use force affect the frequency of force used. Consequently, the various reforms proposed have little evidence supporting them. Using data from Mapping Police Violence combined with census data, we examined the impact of the incorporation of U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence and the overall restrictiveness each state placed on law enforcement’s ability to use force when making an arrest and what constituted reasonable force within each state. We found that while the state’s population size and violent crime rate were strong predictors of the number and rate of officer-involved deaths (OIDs), state statutory restrictions on use of force had negligible effects. This has important implications for reforming state and national discussions around reforming use of force.
... In contrast, interactional justice is present when others treat individuals with dignity and respect, and politeness by refraining from asking inappropriate questions or making prejudicial statements (Bies 2005;Colquitt et al. 2001;Colquitt, Greenberg, and Zapata-Phelan 2005). This aspect of interactional justice reflects the concept of interpersonal justice, which is focused on in this study as disrespect is a noted correlate of crime (e.g., Anderson 1999;Brezina et al. 2004;Griffiths, Yule, and Gartner 2011;Le Roy, Bastounis, and Minibas-Poussard 2012;Scheuerman 2013). The second dimension of interactional justice, informational justice, references the degree to which others are honest in communication and provide sufficient explanation of procedures or outcomes (Bies 2001(Bies , 2005Colquitt et al. 2001) and, when violated, has lesser implications for the occurrence of crime or deviance than interpersonal injustice (Le Roy, Bastounis, and Minibas-Poussard 2012). ...
Although scholars have theoretically addressed how information from others
can affect justice processes, little empirical research investigates how indivi-
duals make sense of a distributive injustice when also attending to other
justice and legitimacy concerns. This research examines how legitimacy
conditions emotional and behavioral responses to various forms of injustice
associated with strain. Drawing from General Strain Theory (GST) and the
social psychological literature on legitimacy and justice, I investigate how
endorsement of a deviant response to injustice, while failing to support the
perpetrator of injustice, influences negative affect and projected deviant
coping in response to a distributively unjust blocked goal. A randomized
vignette survey was distributed to a sample of undergraduates. Results
reveal that legitimacy affects perceptions of justice and conditions the effect
of unjust strain on negative affect and the likelihood of deviance, but only
when certain types of injustice are present.
... In particular, structural conditions lead to cynicism and hopelessness that become an "institutional feature" of urban neighborhoods that shape values and the nature of public interactions, such as violence (Anderson, 1999;Oliver, 2006;Sampson & Wilson, 1995). Anderson's work has been supported in numerous studies on youth violence at the individual level (Brezina et al., 2004;McNulty & Bellair, 2003;). At the macro-level, Parker and Reckdenwald (2008) found empirical evidence of an inverse relationship between the presence of African American role models and Black youth violence in a large sample of 157 US cities. ...
Entrepreneurship is touted as a pathway to achieve economic mobility and this is particularly true among immigrants and Black Americans. There is little research on whether the rise in Black entrepreneuership is linked to the declining rates of violernce in urban areas, net of effects associated with the concentration of disadvantage. After generating two distinct measures of Black entrepreneurship using national-level business ownership data, we test to see if Black-owned businesses were significantly related to the documented decline in juvenile violence in larger US cities from 1990 to 2010. Our findings show an inverse relationship between Black entrepreneurship and youth violence across multiple cities in 1990 and 2000, while the rate of paid employees in Black firms contributed to a reduction of Black youth violence in 2010. Furthermore, our fixed-effect design confirms the growing presence of Black businesses is a significant contributor to the reduction in Black urban violence. In changing economic times, we discuss the theoretical and empirical importance of Black entrepreneurship as a way out of poverty and crime in urban areas.
... Statistics released by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention show that the rate of violent crime against juveniles was 33.8 victimizations per 1,000 in 2018 and only about 23% of violent crimes against juveniles were reported to law enforcement (Hullenaar & Ruback, 2020). Despite a decline in these rates over time, juvenile violent victimization is still a growing concern, especially given its association with a number of adverse emotional and behavioral outcomes, including but not limited to physical and mental health problems, substance use, aggression, and crime (Brezina et al., 2004;Mohammad et al., 2015;Zimmerman et al., 2017). Early violent victimization is one of the most consistent and robust predictors of criminal offending in both short-and long-term, and the victim-offender overlap has been widely documented in criminological research (Jennings et al., 2012). ...
Previous research has consistently shown that juvenile violent victimization is associated with an increased risk of future criminal involvement, a phenomenon commonly known as victim-offender overlap. Despite a growing interest in the factors underlying this overlap, potential roles of major life transitions and turning points that may interrupt and reshape the nature of this developmental association have garnered less academic attention. Analyzing nationally representative data from waves I, IV, and V of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health; n = 10,205), this study investigates the association between juvenile violent victimization and adult criminal outcomes (i.e., violent offending, non-violent offending, arrest, and incarceration) and whether this association is moderated by military service with and without combat experience in young adulthood. Employing a series of logistic regression analyses and adjusting for a host of covariates, measures of selection, and criminogenic traits, we found that juvenile violent victimization was significantly associated with greater odds of violent offending, arrest, and incarceration in adulthood. Among individuals with violent victimization histories, military service with no combat experience was associated with a 16% decrease in the odds of incarceration in adulthood. Combat experience, however, was associated with over seven times greater odds of violent offending in adulthood for these individuals. These findings have important implications for theory, research, and practice, and highlight the relevance of life transitions and turning points in general, and military service in particular, in mitigating or perpetuating the criminogenic impacts of violent victimization in the life course.
... Evidence suggests that one plausible explanation for why individuals may be hesitant to forgive a transgressor is their internalized adherence to masculine honor beliefs (e.g., Brezina et al., 2004;Brown, 2016;Schumann & Ross, 2010;Shafa et al., 2017). Past research has demonstrated that masculine honor beliefs (both at the cultural and individuallevel) encourage vengeful and aggressive responses to insults by strangers in order to create and maintain a tough and 'don't mess with me' reputation (e.g., Barnes, Brown, & Osterman, 2012;Chalman et al., 2021;Günsoy et al., 2015;Foster et al., 2022;O'Dea et al., 2017;Vandello & Cohen, 2003;Saucier & McManus, 2014). ...
... In other contexts, such as in socioeconomically developed countries, the so-called "code of the street" endorsed by some disadvantaged youth also construes violence and power relations as simply "part of the game"-it is up to everyone to avoid becoming a victim (Anderson, 1999;Brezina et al., 2004;Dedios and Jovchelovitch, 2021). ...
We use an evolutionary approach to explain the existence and design features of human moral cognition. Because humans are under selection to appear as good cooperative investments, they face a trade-off between maximizing the immediate gains of each social interaction and maximizing its long-term reputational benefits. In a simplified game, we show that this trade-off leads individuals to behave according to the generalized Nash bargaining solution at evolutionary equilibrium. From this result, we derive the psychological proposition that moral cognition is a calculator of this bargaining solution. Moral cognition computes reciprocal obligations that would maximize mutual benefit if each partners complied to them, and tags as morally wrong the behaviors that violate these reciprocal contracts. These contractualist computations entail that (i) everyone in a social interaction deserves to receive a net benefit, (ii) people ought to act in a way that would maximize social welfare if everyone acted in the same way, (iii) all domains of social behavior can be moralized, (iv) moral duties can appear deontological and principled, and (v) moral intuitions depend heavily on the context since morality is not a set of rigid rules, but the product of flexible calculations. We then apply this theory to some of the most important areas of morality, such as distributive justice, ownership rules, the prohibition of violence, special obligations toward kin and ingroups, as well as moralistic punishment and obedience to authorities. We show that the same logic of mutually beneficial contracts explains the design features of moral intuitions in all these domains, as well as their cultural variations.
... There is a growing body of literature linking street code adherence to violent offending among juveniles, adults, and incarcerated populations (for a few examples see, Burgason et al., 2020;Erickson, Hochstetler, & Burgason, 2022;Erickson, Hochstetler, & Dorius, 2020;Mears, Stewart, Siennick, & Simons, 2013). Increasingly, the code of the street is considered a 'general theory of crime' as evidence builds for its applicability to a variety of forms of offending and across populations and geographic regions (Brezina, Agnew, Cullen, & Wright, 2004;DDrummond, Bolland, & Ann Harris, 2011;Matsuda, Melde, Taylor, Freng, & Esbensen, 2013;Moule & Fox, 2021;Taylor, Esbensen, Brick, & Freng, 2010;Stewart & Simons, 2010). Allen and Lo (2012) provided evidence that street code beliefs were related to firearm carrying and participation in drug dealing in a sample of institutionalized and non-institutionalized juveniles and that these results did not vary by race. ...
There have been a number of studies that have examined the relationship between Anderson’s code of the street and criminogenic behavior. However, little research has been done on the potential relationship between street code adherence and the dark figure of crime. Using a sample of 299 institutionalized individuals the authors examine the relationship between street code adherence and official and unofficial records of assaults and motor vehicle theft. Results official records indicated that street code adherence was not significantly related to either offense type. However, when self-report data for assaults and motor vehicle theft was analyzed, there was strong evidence that street code adherence was a significant predictor. The results suggest that street code adherence is a better predictor of self-report offenses than those measured by official records. Thus, street code adherence may be key to shedding light on the dark figure of crime.
... Lifestyle and social circle are not considered when defining desistance. Unfortunately, this concept may be problematic since a stronger commitment to subcultural norms and values also significantly affects engagement in violence and deviance (Brezina et al. 2004). ...
Hong Kong Triad Society is vastly different from street gangs regarding the size, duration of memberships, structure, and the nature of offending. In the current understandings, gang desistance is conceptualized as an outcome of de-identification and a process of disengagement. Still, the desisted members can mostly maintain their former routine activities, connections, and networks despite being desisted. However, scarce research on Triad rehabilitation created the unexplored situation of Triad desistance. The present study interviewed ex-triad Christians to examine their journey of desistance. From their narratives, this study conceptualized Triad desistance (namely de-Triadization) and compared it with the current understanding of desistance. In addition to de-identification and disengagement, de-Triadization requires the discontinuity of subcultural influences as well. Hence, de-Triadized persons can continually minimize the risk of re-engagement with Triad society and stay in a crime-free lifestyle. This study has complimented the understanding of Triad desistance and offered insights for future studies. Impacts on other criminal organizations are also discussed.
... A key health issue that affects people of all genders, but primarily girls and women is violence and abuse in the context of intimate relationships, as perpetrated by men (Levant and Pryor, 2020). Such behaviours are complex and multifactorial, but are often associated with adherence to traditional masculine beliefs of the necessity of power over women, control, and that violence is a legitimate response to masculine honour violations (Brezina et al., 2004;Kato-Wallace et al., 2019). Promoting positive masculinities defined by equal and respectful connection with one's partner norms equality in relationships, and is potentially one ingredient in addressing this problem and bettering the holistic wellbeing of communities. ...
... In other contexts, such as socio-economically developed D R A F T countries, the so-called "code of the street" endorsed by some deprived youths also construes violence and power relations as being simply "part of the game" -it is up to everyone to avoid becoming a victim (Anderson, 1999;Brezina et al., 2004;Dedios and Jovchelovitch, 2021). Lastly, in vignette experiments, subjects also considered that it is sometimes acceptable to act deliberately in a way that will cause suffering to others (Royzman and Borislow, 2022), which shows that even the duty not to harm has limits. ...
Our goal in this paper is to use an evolutionary approach to explain the existence and design-features of human moral cognition. Our approach is based on the premise that human beings are under selection to appear as good cooperative investments. Hence they face a trade-off between maximizing the immediate gains of each social interaction, and maximizing its long-term reputational effects. In a simple 2-player model, we show that this trade-off leads individuals to maximize the generalized Nash product at evolutionary equilibrium, i.e., to behave according to the generalized Nash bargaining solution. We infer from this result the theoretical proposition that morality is a domain-general calculator of this bargaining solution. We then proceed to describe the generic consequences of this approach: (i) everyone in a social interaction deserves to receive a net benefit, (ii) people ought to act in ways that would maximize social welfare if everyone was acting in the same way, (iii) all domains of social behavior can be moralized, (iv) moral duties can seem both principled and non-contractual, and (v) morality shall depend on the context. Next, we apply the approach to some of the main areas of social life and show that it allows to explain, with a single logic, the entire set of what are generally considered to be different moral domains. Lastly, we discuss the relationship between this account of morality and other evolutionary accounts of morality and cooperation.
... Aggression is a socially acceptable way to establish manhood or gain respect, both of which are highly valued in urban, primarily Black, subcultures (Anderson 1999). 2 Retailiating against aggressors, however, is also expected, which in turn increases the likelihood that participants in the subculture will be both aggressors and victims (Berg et al. 2012). As such, in disadvantaged neighborhoods where these cultural adaptations have taken hold, violence is a normative response to disrespectful actions leading to higher rates of violent crime (Brezina et al. 2004;Stewart, Schreck, and Simons 2006). ...
Although prior research has long examined neighborhood effects on violent crime generally and aggravated assault specifically, less attention has been paid to how structure affects less serious offenses. However, neighborhood factors such as single-parent households or poverty are likely important predictors for the commission of less serious forms of violence, though their relative effects may vary depending on the level of severity of violence employed. The current study disaggregates assaults and examines whether neighborhood factors have differential effects on aggravated, non-aggravated (simple), and domestic assaults. Using data from Cleveland, OH we conduct a series of negative binomial regression models and use seemingly unrelated postestimation commands to identify differences across assault type. We identify important differences in the neighborhood drivers of assault, especially single-parent households, disadvantage, and residential stability, and between domestic assault from simple or aggravated. Our findings underscore the importance of disaggregating assaults to unmask distinctions in how community context influences serious and less serious forms of violence. In doing so, we identify important elements that crime reduction strategies should consider – particularly for less serious but more common forms of violence – in order to implemented more effectively.
... Similar to developmental research focused broadly on moral disengagement (e.g., Espejo-Siles et al. 2020), a process conceptually similar to the acquisition of street code values (Bandura 1986), extensive evidence supports the code of the street thesis at the individual level, showing violence and related behaviors such as gun carrying to be especially common among those who adhere to values focused on being respected by any means necessary. This includes adolescent males and gang members throughout the United States (Brezina et al. 2004;Matsuda et al. 2013), African-American youth in Georgia and Iowa Simons 2006, 2010;Stewart et al. 2002), institutionalized juvenile delinquents in Philadelphia (Burgason et al. 2020), young men in urban areas, male inmates, and male high school students in four U.S. states (Allen and Lo 2012), and homeless youth in Canadian cities (Baron 2017; Baron et al. 2001). In addition, although theoretical expectations of the code protecting its adherents from violent victimization have not been supported (e.g., McNeeley and Wilcox 2015; Richardson and St. Vil 2016), neighborhood street culture has been found to increase neighborhood levels of violence and exacerbate the tendency for individual street code values to increase the likelihood of individual involvement in violent delinquency (Stewart and Simons 2010; see also Baumer et al. 2003;Berg et al. 2012). ...
Little is known about the role of subcultural values in the development of violence in schools and among school-aged children. Drawing on the “code of the street” thesis, which identifies schools as important staging grounds in the campaign for respect among young people, this study aims to fill this gap in the literature by analyzing student- and school-level associations between projected violence and self-reported subcultural values revolving around toughness and respect. The analytic sample includes N = 1767 students (53.65% female) in grades 7, 8, and 9 (ages 11–17 years, mean = 13.5 years) at 40 middle and high schools in Boston, MA, Denver, CO, and Miami, FL. Consistent with research involving a variety of adolescent and young adult populations, estimates from multilevel negative binomial regression models reveal a robust positive student-level association between personal adherence to subcultural values and projected violence. However, school-level results indicate a compositional, rather than contextual, effect in which higher school-mean levels of projected violence reflect the aggregate values of individual students rather than independent or interactive processes involving the school-level prevalence of code of the street values. Thus, while code of the street values may be important contributors to youth violence, the school setting appears to play a limited role in transmitting their influence among students.
... For example, studies of optimal foraging demonstrate that individuals whose average expected return on foraging is below the starvation threshold may adopt the riskier strategy to maximize the likelihood of survival (Caraco, Martindale, & Whittam, 1980;Stephens & A. B., 1981). The empirical literature in psychology and behavioral sciences indeed shows that deprived individuals tend to be more violent (Brezina, Agnew, Cullen, & Wright, 2004;Shaw, 2005;Wells et al., 2019), take on riskier jobs (Leigh, 1986;Orrenius & Zavodny, 2009;Sterling & Weinkam, 1990), and engage in riskier health behaviors (Brennan, Henry, Nicholson, Kotowicz, & Pasco, 2009;Droomers, Schrijvers, Stronks, van de Mheen, & Mackenbach, 1999;Everson, Maty, Lynch, & Kaplan, 2002;Hanson & Chen, 2007;Hersch & Viscusi, 1998;Hiscock, Bauld, Amos, Fidler, & Munafò, 2012;McLaren, 2007;Pampel, Krueger, & Denney, 2010;Pill, Peters, & Robling, 1995). Yet, as Pepper and Nettle (2017) note, this association between the "behavioral constellation of deprivation" and risk taking relies on a loose conceptualisation of risky behavior, namely activities associated with an increased likelihood of experiencing undesirable outcomes. ...
Individual observations of risky behaviors present a paradox: individuals who take the most risks in terms of hazards (smoking, speeding, risky sexual behaviors) are also less likely to take risks when it comes to innovation, financial risks or entrepreneurship. Existing theories of risk-preferences do not explain these patterns. From a simple model, we argue that many decisions involving risk have a temporal dimension, and that this dimension is often the main determinant of individual choices. In many real life instances, risk taking amounts to damaging the individual's capital (whether embodied capital, financial capital, social reputation, etc.), which would affect her over a long period of time after the risky decision. In evolutionary terms, the marginal cost of this type of risky behavior depends on the relative importance of the future in the individual's fitness (e.g. her time horizon). Individuals with short time horizons will give less importance to a degradation of their capital because this degradation will be paid effectively for a shorter period of time. This approach explains patterns of behaviors observed across socio-economic groups and puts forward new approaches to prevent hazardous behaviors such as smoking.
... Studies have found a link between bullying behaviors and substance use among adolescents [55][56][57]. Specifically, findings indicate a strong association between legal substance use and being a victim of bullying [58], which is in line with studies that have identified the use of illegal drugs, such as marijuana, as a reaction to victimization from bullying [59]. Although the line of research focusing on bystanders' risk and health risk behaviors is scantly addressed [60], some studies found that exposure to violence, either directly as victims or indirectly as bystanders, equally increases internalization of suicidal ideation, substance abuse, and self-directed violent behavior (e.g., attempted suicide) among adolescents [14]. ...
This article constructs a comprehensive theoretical model that outlines bystanders’ emotional and behavioral responses to the mistreatment of adolescent peers. The model captures bystanders’ risk and health risk behaviors, which have been overlooked in the context of their reactions; when addressed at all in connection with bystanders of bullying among adolescents, they have been treated separately. Here, we present bystanders’ emotional and cognitive reactions and their impact on bystanders’ responses including a set of responses that demonstrate risk and health risk behaviors that are directed to the bystander as a victim by proxy. The theoretical framework is the conservation of resources theory, which posits that personal resources (i.e., potency and moral disengagement) and social resources impact the process that leads to bystanders’ reactions. Previous models have overlooked the integrative viewpoint of bystanders, and comprehensive models that explain bystanders’ behavioral and emotional responses have received little attention especially with regards to adolescents. Two recent models overlooked core features embedded in the current model, including the risk and health risk behaviors that it integrates. The proposed model presents a novel and more comprehensive view of bystanders’ reactions and the process underlying these reactions. It integrates existing knowledge embedded in other existing models. At the same time, this perspective indicates the centricity of potency as a key resource that dictates the emotional response and behaviors of bystanders. This potentially allows for new applications in the mitigation of adverse impacts that follow the witnessing of mistreatment. The article discusses these applications, which are based on previous findings, their implications for practice, and directions for future empirical research necessary to validate the model.
... In their research, however, criminologists have discovered that young men who believe that violence is an appropriate and legitimate response to insults to their honor are more likely to be involved in violent crime than other young men (Brezina et al., 2004). They have also found that perpetrators of so-called lone-wolf terror attacks are often perpetrators of violence against women (McCulloch et al., 2019). ...
Violent extremism and acts of terrorism are a major threat to peace and security globally. To date though the gender dynamics of support for, participation in, and prevention of violent extremism have been largely neglected by psychology, sociology, and political science scholars. Drawing on field research in Indonesia where the threat of violent extremism is pervasive, this article asks how do gendered perceptions and ideologies fuel and spread extremism and violent extremism? It highlights how women resist, counter, and prevent fundamentalist and extremist ideologies and the gendered identities and ideologies associated with them in everyday life in order to bring a gendered perspective into an examination of the causes of violent extremism and efforts to prevent it.
... Since violence is normative in such neighborhoods, victims of crime are more likely to retaliate violently against perpetrators; similarly, offenders may become victims of crime since they have used violence as a means of resolving prior disputes (Lauritsen et al., 1991;Sampson and Lauritsen, 1990). Respect plays an important role in a subculture of violence, and disrespectful actions are often met with violent responses (Brezina et al., 2004;Stewart, Schreck, and Simons, 2006). ...
Women are playing an increasing role in violent crime, both as offenders and victims. Yet, little research has examined how neighborhood structural characteristics might explain this involvement, or who women victimize relative to men. Drawing upon theories of social disorganization, strain, and a subculture of violence, we examine macro-level variation in the type and frequency of within and across group violence between men and women. Analyses are based on aggravated assaults and robberies reported to the Los Angeles Police Department between 2001 and 2007. Neighborhood disadvantage has a greater impact on women perpetrating violence against other women relative to any other sex dyad. Family structural variables are particularly important for understanding rates of within group robberies among women, and highlight that multiple measures of family structure are important for understanding gendered differences in rates of violent crime across dyads.
... The fear created by the digital street then moved to the place of the party -creating an organised meaning for space. This meaning required Charles and his peers' consensus for violence, which equals the 'street code' (Brezina et al., 2004;Heitmeyer et al., 2019). If only Charles followed the street code, it would be dysfunctional. ...
This qualitative study explores how the masculine performances of young black men inform their knife-carrying on an inner-city London estate. Young men’s narratives describe how their spaces, which contain violent ‘street codes’, shape the idealised, hegemonic, and complicit masculinities of the street, leading some to justify their knife-carrying. The study also examines the role that formal (e.g., youth workers, police) and informal (parents, peers, social media) agents play in young men’s vulnerability and masculine idealisations. My research uses an interactionist approach within an urban ethnography design. It intersects the fields of gender, criminology and youth studies. Fieldwork took place between February and December 2019. It involved informal conversations and street observations, focus groups, formal interviews, photo projects and community mapping with black males aged between 18-23. During fieldwork, five street-based youth workers also participated in recorded and informal conversations. Using thematic analyses, findings indicate the presence of two localised masculine hegemonies: one, more established and violent, and one emergent, and more inclusive. The thesis highlights how urban ethnography can enhance understandings of young black men’s masculine performances in inner-city spaces and explores various methodologically creative approaches to engaging ‘marginalised’ participants, including the use of youth workers as gatekeepers. The research has implications for street-based youth work practise: firstly, the findings highlight several risk factors in young men’s lives, requiring mitigation; secondly, they emphasise the importance of street-based youth workers in modelling less violent and more inclusive patterns of masculinity.
... Such strains include the inability to achieve respect through conventional channels, the failure of the police to respond when disputes arise and the general tensions associated with poverty. Anderson provides perhaps the best description of a contemporary subculture of violence, and research suggests that individuals who adopt the code of the street are more likely to engage in violence (Brezina et al., 2004;Mullins, 2006;Stewart and Simons, 2006;Wilkinson, 2003). Research, however, suggests that blacks are no more likely than whites to adopt the code. ...
... For example, studies of optimal foraging demonstrate that individuals whose average expected return on foraging is below the starvation threshold may adopt the riskier strategy to maximize the likelihood of survival (Caraco, Martindale, & Whittam, 1980;Stephens & A. B., 1981). The empirical literature in psychology and behavioral sciences indeed shows that deprived individuals tend to be more violent (Brezina, Agnew, Cullen, & Wright, 2004;Shaw, 2005;Wells et al., 2019), take on riskier jobs (Leigh, 1986;Orrenius & Zavodny, 2009;Sterling & Weinkam, 1990), and engage in riskier health behaviors (Brennan, Henry, Nicholson, Kotowicz, & Pasco, 2009;Droomers, Schrijvers, Stronks, van de Mheen, & Mackenbach, 1999;Everson, Maty, Lynch, & Kaplan, 2002;Hanson & Chen, 2007;Hersch & Viscusi, 1998;Hiscock, Bauld, Amos, Fidler, & Munafò, 2012;McLaren, 2007;Pampel, Krueger, & Denney, 2010;Pill, Peters, & Robling, 1995). Yet, as Pepper and Nettle (2017) note, this association between the "behavioral constellation of deprivation" and risk taking relies on a loose conceptualisation of risky behavior, namely activities associated with an increased likelihood of experiencing undesirable outcomes. ...
Individual observations of risky behaviors present a paradox: individuals who take the most risks in terms of hazards (smoking, speeding, risky sexual behaviors) are also less likely to take risks when it comes to innovation, financial risks or entrepreneurship. Existing theories of risk-preferences do not explain these patterns. From a simple model, we argue that many decisions involving risk have a temporal dimension, and that this dimension is often the main determinant of individual choices. In many real life instances, risk taking amounts to damaging the individual's capital (whether embodied capital, financial capital, social reputation, etc.), which would affect her over a long period of time after the risky decision. In evolutionary terms, the marginal cost of this type of risky behavior depends on the relative importance of the future in the individual's fitness (e.g. her time horizon). Because the cost of a degradation of their capital will be paid for an effective shorter period of time, individuals with short time horizons will give less importance to this degradation. This approach explains patterns of behaviors observed across socio-economic groups and puts forward new approaches to prevent hazardous behaviors such as smoking.
... For instance, Agnew, Piquero, and Cullen (2009) explained that embezzlement offenders, especially lowerclass ones, are more likely to attribute their offending to an economic problem (Langton and Piquero 2007;Weisburd, Chayet, and Waring 1990) when their income cannot help them meet their basic needs, purchase desired goods, solve financial problems, or pay their bills (Agnew et al. 2008). Moreover, white-collar workers may turn to crime when their statuses are threatened (Agnew, Piquero, and Cullen 2009) or their channels of promotion are blocked (Brezina et al. 2016). Lastly, a wide range of work-related strains may also contribute to corruption, such as ambiguous job expectation, role conflicts, overloads, extensive job demands, insufficient rewards, insecurity and unpleasant working conditions, and interpersonal problems in the workplace (Agnew, Piquero, and Cullen 2009: 46). ...
The rampancy of corruption in China has stimulated a wide range of scholarly attention on its etiology. The general strain theory (GST) predicts that the economics-related strain, promotion-related strain, and work-related strain increase white-collar offenses. However, the generalizability of GST's prediction of white-collar offenses in non-Western societies is unclear. Applying a sequential exploratory mixed-method design, this study involved interviews with 23 grassroot public officials, convicted for corruption, and surveyed 687 similar offenders in 60 prisons in China. The qualitative results show that previously mentioned strains are not sufficient to explain the strains that lead to corruption in Chinese public officials. Strains rooted in the unique political system and cultural values of China (resources strain, deviant subcultural strain, and Renqing (personal interests) strain) are also shown to be associated with corruption. The quantitative results indicate that all six types of strains are significantly and positively associated with the frequency of corrupt behavior. The current study not only expands the scope of GST to non-Western societies, but also provides suggestions on further revision and extension of GST.
... According to Anderson, individuals invested in street culture adhere to informal rules that guide behavioral options during interpersonal interactions, especially conflicts. Adherents to the code present themselves in a way that garners respect, which helps them build status or social capital on the street (Brezina, Agnew, Cullen, & Wright, 2004). Respect is closely aligned with toughness or being able to defend oneself during a physical confrontation. ...
Street gangs form subtly unique cultures, but they are also immersed in a broader street culture that is pervasive in select urban neighborhoods. The intersection between gang and street culture merits attention because it can help explain criminal and violent behavior within gangs. Scholars developing subcultural theories of criminal behavior have historically focused on street gangs as a topic of study. Early theories typically conceptualized delinquent subcultures as being opposed to mainstream culture and comprised of norms and values that established goals and expectations for gang members to pursue. The emergence of scholarship on street culture has, however, caused cultural arguments to focus more on how individuals situationally employ cultural ideas to navigate complex social settings. Culture informs gang members on how to interpret, understand, and respond to various social situations. This chapter examines contemporary ideas about gangs and street culture relative to older, more traditional subcultural theories about gangs. It explores the benefits of conceptualizing gang culture according to modern ideas about street culture.
... Similarly, researchers have consistently linked the code of the street with violence on the street (Baron, 2017;Brezina et al., 2004;Burgason et al., 2020) and within prison (Mears et al., 2016). ...
The convict code guides behaviors, beliefs, and interactions of incarcerated people by encouraging them to mind their own business, never back down, keep to themselves, and not get too close with correctional officers. Within communities, a similar subculture exists, termed the code of the street, which values respect, toughness, autonomy, and anti-police sentiments. Despite the overlap in their themes, these cultures have been theorized and analyzed independently. Yet, with 600,000 people entering and leaving prisons annually, it is possible that these seemingly distinct cultures blend together through the transition of people into and out of prison, raising theoretical and empirical questions about their independence. We examine the overlap between the convict code and code of the street in a representative sample of prisoners. Our results indicate that the code of the street and convict code are moderately correlated (r = 0.368 to r = 0.591), although the code of the street indicator overlaps mainly with the convict code dimension for masculinity. A sizeable group (47%) of individuals held converging beliefs regarding these two constructs. Convergence was explained primarily by years in prison, prison misconduct, gang membership, and neighborhood quality. Implications for an integrated model of culture are discussed.
... Much of the early, and arguably most influential, assessments of the street code were conducted using the FACHS data set, a longitudinal study of over 800 African American youths and their families in Iowa and Georgia Stewart et al., 2002Stewart et al., , 2006. More recent research has explored the influence of street code beliefs on offending among racially, ethnically, and geographically diverse samples of adults , community-and schoolbased adolescents (Brezina et al., 2004;Carson & Esbensen, 2014;Drummond et al., 2011;Matsuda et al., 2013;McNeeley & Hoeben, 2017;Simons et al., 2012;Taylor et al., 2010), college students (Henson et al., 2017;, and active or incarcerated offenders (Allen & Lo, 2012; Mears et al., 2013;Moule et al., 2017;Pyrooz et al., 2014). We consider, in part, the extent to which the diversity of these samples may influence the relationship between street code beliefs and offending. ...
Anderson’s Code of the Street thesis suggests that stronger belief in, and adherence to, subcultural “street code” norms increases the risk of criminal and aggressive behaviors, particularly among adolescents and young adults in urban communities. This study uses a meta-analysis to assess the overall relationship between individual belief in the street code and risk of offending. Effect sizes ( n = 38) from 20 unique studies produced a weighted correlation ( r) of .11, indicating a belief in the street code had a positive association with offending across all studies. The effect is strongest for violent offending (.13) and among samples comprised of adolescents (.14), as predicted by Anderson’s theory. Even after accounting for competing theoretical and established correlates of offending, modest effects of street code beliefs on offending remained. These findings indicate that overall, the street code is a more general theory than Anderson originally predicted. Directions for future research on the code are discussed.
Acquisitive crimes share a common thread in that they focus on obtaining some form of benefit. There is considerable variation in the potential risks and rewards inherent in each crime type, however. This study assessed whether perceptions of risk, rewards, and social costs differentially predict engagement in four acquisitive crimes: credit fraud, drug selling, burglary, and robbery. This study also examined specialization within these offenses. The results suggested that increased risk perceptions reduced the odds of engagement in burglary and drug selling. Reward perceptions increased odds of engagement in fraud, burglary, and robbery. There was limited specialization, with some exception for drug selling. Understanding the perceptual dynamics of acquisitive crime is important for developing policies tailored to specific crime types.
Previous studies on exposure to violence lack a nuanced understanding of the causal effects of different exposure types on offending behaviors. This study, drawing on Pathways to Desistance Study (PDS) data tracking 1354 adjudicated youths aged 14–18 over 7 years, explores the contemporaneous (cross‐sectional), acute (after 1 year), enduring (after 3 years), and long‐term (after 6 years) causal effects of violence exposure on property and violent offending. The sample, predominantly male (86%), consisted of White (20%), Black (42%), and other (38%) individuals. The generalized propensity score is used to match unbalanced covariates across multiple exposure types, namely noninvolved ( n = 392), witnessed ( n = 577), experienced ( n = 31), and experienced‐witnessed violence ( n = 305). Results demonstrate the contemporaneous, acute, enduring, and long‐term effects of violence exposure on both violent and property offending, with varying durations and strengths across exposure types. The most pronounced risk effects are immediate, diminishing over time and potentially reversing in the long term as youth transition into adulthood. Among exposure types, experienced‐witnessed violence exhibits the most potent effects on offending, followed by witnessed violence and then experienced violence—a pattern consistent across the observed time points. Noteworthy is the finding that the impact of violence exposure is more pronounced for violent offending, diminishing more rapidly compared to the effects on property offending.
This review, published on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of Code of the Street (1999), considers the legacies of Elijah Anderson's groundbreaking analysis of the interactional rules for negotiating street violence within the context of racism and structural disadvantage in Philadelphia. Empirical testing has yielded substantial support for Code of the Street’s key arguments. In the process of assessing its generalizability, such scholarship has inadvertently flattened and decontextualized the theory by, for example, reducing it to attitudinal scales. We identify a more politically conscious analysis in the original text than it is generally credited with, which we use to argue that “code of the street” has outgrown its reductive categorization as a subcultural theory. We conclude that the pressing issue of urban gun violence makes now an ideal time to refresh the theory by resituating it within the contemporary structural and cultural landscape of urban violence, analyze the social-ecological features that shape the normative regulation of violence, and study the prosocial and adaptive features of the code.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Criminology, Volume 7 is January 2024. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
A primary argument of Anderson’s (1999) code of the street thesis is that youth who hold stronger street code values are more likely to engage in antisocial behavior, particularly violence. While support for this argument has been observed in past research both within and outside the United States, it has not yet been scrutinized in the Central American context. Using data collected in 2022 from separate samples of youth in Honduras (N = 950) and El Salvador (N = 821), we investigate the association between street code values and three outcomes: delinquency, substance use, and bullying perpetration. Results show that while street code values are positively associated with each of the outcomes when accounting for demographic and socioeconomic variables, the association is substantively reduced, often to non-significance once other competing theoretical variables such as low self-control and peer antisocial behavior are considered. Discussion centers on the interpretation of these findings and situating them within the larger body of research investigating the association between individual street code values and antisocial behavior.
Purpose
This study explores the applicability of Anderson's (1999) code of the street framework to an Asian context by examining the relationship between residents' perceptions of police ineffectiveness, nationality, and street codes in foreigner-concentrated areas in South Korea.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used survey data from 1,865 residents of diverse nationalities living in 20 foreigner-concentrated areas in South Korea. Mixed-effects ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and moderation analysis were used to examine (1) the association between residents' perceptions of police ineffectiveness and their street codes and (2) how this association varies across nationality groups.
Findings
The study findings overall indicated that higher resident perceptions of police as ineffective tended to correspond with greater levels of street codes. However, the interaction analysis results found that this relationship was conditioned by nationality. Specifically, perceptions of police ineffectiveness were associated with greater levels of street codes among foreign residents, particularly Korean-Chinese residents, whereas this was not the case among Korean residents.
Originality/value
The relationship between perceptions of the police and street codes described by Anderson (1999) has primarily been examined in the context of the U.S. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study represents the first attempt to explore the link between residents' perceptions of the police and street codes by different nationality groups within an Asian setting.
This book deals with criminological theory, criminology, and criminal justice. It addresses a wide range of topics relevant to criminology, including socioeconomic factors that contribute to crime such as biology, community and inequality, emotions, immigration, social institutions, social learning, social support, parenting, peer networks, street culture, and market economy. It also examines the developmental criminology perspective and the developmental risk factors for crime and delinquency across five key risk domains (individuals, family, peers, schools, and community). Moreover, it reviews criminological research that ascribes criminal behavior to the interaction between individuals and street culture; Cesare Lombroso's views about the causes and correlates of crime as delineated in his book, Criminal Man ; the state of contemporary gang ethnography; Travis Hirschi's major contributions to the methods of analysis in criminology; the role of gender in delinquency; the link between coercion and crime; the psychology of criminal conduct; violence in drug markets in suburbs and the code of the suburb; the impact of imprisonment on reoffending; green criminology; and why crime levels are extraordinarily high in some places but low or totally absent in most places, and how place management accounts for this disparity. The book also looks at a variety of theories on criminology, including the rational choice theory, the theory of target search, Robert Agnew's general strain theory, the “Integrated Cognitive Antisocial Potential” theory developed by David Farrington, routine activity theory, and crime-as-choice theory.
Purpose: A broad body of literature has explored the topic of gun violence in the United States. The characteristics of communities, victims, and offenders have each been used to explain variation in gun crime. Less attention has been given to covariates of repeat use of crime guns. We examine the influence of neighborhood and initial incident characteristics on the odds that crime guns will be used in multiple incidents. Methods: We apply binary logistic regression to a sample of 309 crime guns used in offenses in a city in the Southeastern U.S. to examine how neighborhood and initial incident characteristics influence the likelihood that a crime gun will be used in multiple incidents. Results: We find that neighborhood levels of disadvantage and violence, gang involvement during the initial incident, and time in circulation following initial use in a known crime impact the odds that crime guns will be used in more than one offense. Conclusions: Taken together, the findings lead to clear policy implications in terms of improved police-community relations, reconceptualization of case closures, and prioritization of crime gun seizures.
Extensive empirical research has demonstrated a strong association between the code of the street and gang violence among inmates within correctional settings. Largely absent from this literature is the prominence of Street Code beliefs among incarcerated youth populations. Using data from a sample of 306 adolescent males, analyses were conducted to assess the likelihood of Street Code endorsement among incarcerated youth from communities with gang problems prior to incarceration. Ordinal logistic regression analyses indicate that both gang-affiliated youth and youth that report high rates of gang conflict in their community are significantly more likely to endorse the Street Code as compared to their counterparts. Implications for both theory and policy are addressed.
The present study tests a conceptual framework guided by the social disorganization theory, which examined whether neighborhood deterioration was correlated with perceived hopelessness, and coping strategies (i.e., defending behavior and a display of a tough demeanor). We also examined whether, within the context of social disadvantage, some coping strategies were correlated with aggressive behavior, which might be associated with peer victimization. The study sample consisted of 502 African American youths in low-resource communities in Chicago’s Southside. Results indicated that neighborhood deterioration was positively associated with hopelessness (B = .138, p = .006), tough demeanor (B = .137, p = .042), and peer victimization (B = .158, p = .011). Also, hopelessness was positively associated with peer victimization (B = .109, p = .025). Defending behavior was positively associated with physical aggression (B = .110, p =.009) and verbal aggression (B = .047, p = .019). Moreover, tough demeanor was also positively associated with physical aggression (B = .217, p < .001) and verbal aggression (B = .169, p < .001). Furthermore, verbal aggression was found to be positively associated with peer victimization (B = .766, p = .019). Overall, findings point to a more nuanced and complex relationship between neighborhood conditions and peer victimization among urban African American youth. An understanding of the coping strategies of urban adolescents in dealing with peer victimization encounters can shed light on the complexities of adolescent peer dynamics in urban areas.
This study examines the effects of adherence to street codes on school-based violent victimization. In doing so, it separates street values into two distinct orientations: (1) retaliatory norms, and (2) general toughness norms. We analyze survey data from students across four waves of the Rural Substance Abuse and Violence Project using two-level mixed effects Poisson regression. The model specifies random intercepts across individuals to address possible endogeneity of the repeated measurements per respondent. Further, consistent with a fixed-effects approach, we control for differences across the schools in which students were nested. Findings reveal that adherence to retaliatory norms is negatively related to the frequency of serious violent victimization. In contrast, general toughness norms are positively related to serious violent victimization.
The article examines the recent individual level extensions to Institutional Anomie Theory. It explores if a marketized mentality is important to the development of a violent street code that encourages violence as a method of self-enhancement, as well as a factor directly leading to violence. Further, it investigates if the impact of the marketized mentality on violence is moderated by risk-taking and violent peers. It controls for other important factors associated with violence including physical abuse, homelessness, violent victimization, and social bonds. The research utilizes self-report data from interviews with 400 Canadian homeless youth aged 16-24. Results from the OLS regressions indicated that a marketized mentality, along with risk-taking, violent peers, violent victimization, and social bonds predicted levels of support for the street code. The marketized mentality had a direct effect on violence, as well as an indirect effect through the street code. The effect of marketized mentality on violence was also stronger at higher levels of risk-taking and violent peer association. Physical abuse, violent victimization, risk-taking, and violent peers also had direct effects on violence. The findings suggest that a marketized mentality can be adopted even in economically marginal populations leading to the development of violent strategies to fulfill goals. Avenues for future research are offered.
Introduction
Exposure to violence is a risk factor for firearm carriage. Youth exposed to violence also have difficulty envisioning positive future outcomes (e.g., educational outcomes), which can increase the likelihood of firearm carriage over time. Researchers, however, have not yet examined whether changes in exposure to violence over time can influence the developmental trajectories of firearm carriage. To address this gap, we (1) examined the longitudinal association between exposure to violence and firearm carriage (grades 9 to 12) and then (2) examined whether changes in future expectations mediated this longitudinal association.
Method
The longitudinal association between exposure to violence and firearm carriage through future expectations was examined among 850 adolescents from the Flint Adolescent Study. Participants were recruited from four high schools in a midwestern city in the United States. Parallel latent growth models and latent growth mediation models were estimated.
Results
A positive association was observed between the rate of change in exposure to violence and firearm carriage. Exposure to violence also indirectly increased the risk for firearm carriage over time by decreasing future expectation in the 9th grade.
Conclusions
Our results support the idea that helping youth develop positive attitude about educational success may help reduce firearm carriage. Increasing positive expectations about future may help prevent firearm carriage within the context of violence exposure.
Despite the popularity of the importation model, the majority of previous institutional misconduct research has used individual characteristics, such as race, prior record, education, and sex as proxies to test this theory. This study examines particular oppositional beliefs and values found in Anderson’s “code of the street” through an analysis of self-report data from 951 adult male prison inmates in South Korea. This study fills a void in previous research by examining direct impacts of imported belief systems on inmate interpersonal aggression toward fellow inmates and correctional officers.
In this study, we examine the relationships among social-demographic characteristics, attitudes, and violence, drawing on cultural theories Structural equation modeling techniques are employed to examine data from a representative sample of the general population and a sample of ex-offenders. The findings indicate that age, gender, and SES are related to attitudes toward retribution and courage and to disputatiousness. Further, attitudes toward courage and retribution have significant effects on disputatiousness and violence, which explains a substantial portion of SES effects. The results suggest that lower-class persons are more likely to engage in violence to a large extent because they are more punitive and place greater emphasis on showing courage in conflicts.
Much of the research on violent crime is situated within an exclusively structural or subcultural framework. Some recent work, however, argues that these unidimensional approaches are inherently limited and that more attention needs to be given to the intersection of structural and cultural determinants of violence. The present study takes up this challenge by examining both structural and cultural influences on one underexamined type of homicide: retaliatory killings. Using quantitative data to examine the socioeconomic correlates and ecological distribution of homicide in St. Louis, Missouri, and narrative accounts of homicide incidents, we find that a certain type of homicide (what we call "cultural retaliatory homicide") is more common in some neighborhoods than in others due to the combined effects of economic disadvantage, neighborhood cultural responses to disadvantage, and problematic policing. Problems confronting residents of these communities are often resolved informally - without calling the police - and neighborhood cultural codes support this type of problem-solving, even when the "solution" involves a retaliatory killing. The findings thus lend support to a more integrated structural-cultural perspective on violent crime in urban neighborhoods.
Variation in criminal/delinquent behavior across communities, schools, and other social units is usually explained in terms of social disorganization and subcultural values. Agnew's macro-level strain theory (MST), however, provides an additional explanation. MST contends that macro-level differences in crime and deviance can also be explained in terms of aggregate levels of anger and frustration. Following Agnew's recommendations, the authors conduct an initial school-level test of MST using data on aggressive student behavior from a national sample of public high schools. The results of the assessment lend partial support to the theory, showing that student-to-student conflict is partly a function of the level of anger in the student pop- ulation. Other forms of aggressive student behavior, however, are not likewise affected. Nonetheless, the authors believe the findings are sufficiently promising to warrant further examination of MST, and they offer some suggestions in this regard. In recent years, the criminological community has witnessed a resurgence of interest in strain theory. This development is largely attributable to Agnew's (1992) formulation of general strain theory (GST). According to GST, individuals may encounter aversive social relations in which they expe- rience goal blockage, are presented with noxious stimuli, and/or are deprived of positively valued stimuli. These relations tend to generate negative affect,
This investigation examined the influence of sample size on different goodness-of-fit indices used in confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The first two data sets were derived from large normative samples of responses to a multidimensional self-concept instrument and to a multidimensional instrument used to assess students' evaluations of teaching effectiveness. In the third set, data were simulated and generated according to the model to be tested. In the fourth, data were simulated and generated according to a three-factor model that did not have a simple structure. Twelve fit indicators were used to assess goodness-of-fit in all CFAs. All analyses were conducted with the LISREL V package. One-way ANOVAs and a visual inspection of graphs were used to assess the sample size effect on each index for the four data sets. Despite the inconsistency of the findings with previous claims, the results are consistent with the observation that the amount of random, unexplained variance varies inversely with sample size. Appendices include a set of computed statements, an explanation and listing of the 12 goodness-of-fit indicators, a bibliography, a table of results, and figures showing sample size effect. (Author/LMO)
We advance here a neighborhood-level perspective on racial differences in legal cynicism, dissatisfaction with police, and the tolerance of various forms of deviance. Our basic premise is that structural characteristics of neighbor-hoods explain variations in normative orientations about law, criminal justice, and deviance that are often confounded with the demographic characteristics of individuals. Using a multilevel approach that permits the decomposition of variance within and between neighborhoods, we tested hypotheses on a recently completed study of 8,782 residents of 343 neighborhoods in Chicago. Contrary to received wisdom, we find that African Americans and Latinos are less tolerant of deviance--including violence--than whites. At the same time, neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage display elevated levels of legal cynicism, dissatisfaction with police, and tolerance of deviance unaccounted for by sociodemographic composition and crime-rate differences. Concentrated disadvantage also helps explain why African Americans are more cynical about law and dissatisfied with the police. Neighborhood context is thus important for resolving the seeming paradox that estrangement from legal norms and agencies of criminal justice, especially by blacks, is compatible with the personal condemnation of deviance.
This paper addresses the general question of whether or not the satisfactory resolution of the methodological criticisms of self-report research will result in greater consistency between self-reported and official data with respect to the race and class distributions of delinquent behavior. We review the specific methodological criticisms of self-report delinquency (SRD) research; discuss the use of a new SRD measure in a national youth study; compare the race/class findings of this study with previous SRD research and with official arrest data; and examine the epidemiological and theoretical implications of these findings. Both class and race differentials are found in this study. It appears likely that the differences between these findings and those in earlier SRD studies are a result of differences in the specific SRD measures used. Additionally, these findings suggest a logical connection between SRD and official measures, and they provide some insight into the mechanism whereby official data produce more extreme race and class (as well as age and sex) differences than do self-report measures. The results of this study also have implications for previous tests of theoretical propositions which used self-report delinquency data. In short, prior self-report measures may not have been sensitive enough to capture the theoretically important differences in delinquency involvement.
This article examines the theoretical links between socioeconomic status and violent delinquency. The arguments draw on work
on social structure and personality and learning theories of crime and delinquency. Hypotheses derived from the resulting
explanation are tested using covariance structure models and panel data from a national sample of males. Consistent with these
arguments, the results show that violent delinquency is a product of learning definitions favorable to violence, which itself
is determined directly and indirectly by association with aggressive peers, socioeconomic status, parenting practices, and
prior violent delinquency. The article concludes that explanations of violent adolescent behavior must take into account the
joint contributions of social stratification and culture.
A conceptual framework for studying emerging neighborhood effects on individual development is presented, identifying specific mechanisms and processes by which neighborhood disadvantage influences adolescent developmental outcomes. Using path analyses, the authors test the hypothesis that these organizational and cultural features of neighborhoods mediate the effects of ecological disadvantage on adolescent development and behavior; they then estimate the unique contribution of neighborhood effects on development using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). The study involves samples of neighborhoods from two sites, Chicago and Denver. The analyses support the hypothesis that the effects of ecological disadvantage are mediated by specific organizational and cultural features of the neighborhood. The unique influence of neighborhood effects is relatively small, but in most cases these effects account for a substantial part of the variance explained by the HLM model.
It is clear from the outset that Wacquant has a particular "theoretical" ax to grind—one with an ideological blade—and that in doing so he seriously misreads Code of the Street, distorting its findings to fit his polemical purposes. At best, he seriously misunderstands my work; at worst, he willfully misrepresents it in his review. Regardless, Wacquant fails to engage the main thrust of the book: As a result of the breakdown or weaknesses of civil law in the most distressed inner-city communities, a survival strategy with implications for local public order has emerged—a "code of the street" that relies on "street justice," whose transactions in- volve a currency of reputation, respect, retribution, and retaliation. Be- cause civil law has been so compromised and eroded locally, people often rely on themselves and their reputations for protection, a situation that leads to high rates of urban violence. A legacy of institutionalized racism, joblessness, and alienation suffuses distressed inner-city neighborhoods and exacerbates these conditions. In some of Philadelphia's most distressed ghetto areas, the community divides itself into two opposing status groups—"decent" and "street" —each with its own value orientation. "Decency" is most often associated with the wider, conventional society, whereas "street"—or its own de- scriptive analogue, "ghetto"—is often used as an epithet (especially by those identifying themselves as decent) and strongly associated with the most troublesome aspects of ghetto life. In the name of "keeping it real,"
This research examines the roles of various subcultural, economic, and victimization factors in the violent behavior of 200 homeless male street youths. Findings reveal that factors associated with the street subculture, including long-term homelessness and criminal peers, increase the respondent's risk for violence on the street and provide rules concerning honor, protection, and retribution. However, the heavy use of drugs and alcohol on the street plays only a minor role in explaining violent behavior in this population, and the violence associated with these substances appears to be recreational. Findings also suggest that minimal economic resources and perceptions of a blocked opportunity structure also leave the youths at risk for various violent activities. Results also indicate that victimization on the street and a history of physical abuse in the home are related to the respondents' violent behavior. Results are discussed in terms of different types of violent behavior.
Cet ensemble d'articles fait part de recherches ethnographiques concernant l'etat actuel des comportements sociaux des quartiers pauvres des Etats-Unis. Les AA. debattent et critiquent vivement le point de vue de L. Wacquant et defendent l'objectivite et la validite de leurs recherches respectives
Using a sample of 125 homeless male street youth, we examine the formation of values that support violence and how these attitudes influence violence under different situational conditions. Findings indicate that abusive backgrounds, anger, violent peers, and the successful use of violence as a conflict management strategy are important in understanding the acquisition of values that support violence. These subcultural values in turn make street youths more sensitive to harm in dispute situations, and leave them more likely to demand reparation for harm and to persevere and use force to settle disputes. These youths are more likely to become immersed in disputes in which conflict is intense and which involve male harmoders. Finally, they are more likely to escalate conflict in public places. We discuss findings in terms of experiences and expectations that these youths bring to social interactions.
This article examines the subculture of violence thesis using data on young males (N = 2,213) across 87 high schools. Aggregate
analyses show that values reflecting a subculture of violence have substantial effects on the level of interpersonal violence
among high school boys. Contextual analyses suggest that the school subculture of violence operates through a social control
process. A contextual measure of school values regarding violence has a direct effect on interpersonal violence, controlling
for individuals' commitment to these values. These results contradict the usual explanation of how the subculture of violence
affects violent behavior. Further, evidence implying that values regarding violence predict other forms of delinquency suggests
that the results may reflect a subculture of delinquency rather than a subculture of violence. Finally, young males are most
likely to engage in delinquency when they go to schools where academics are valued, controlling for their own academic values.
This article draws on Agnew's general strain theory to explain community differences in crime rates. After reviewing the communities and crime research, the author discusses the ways in which community-level variables contribute to strain, including the failure to achieve positively valued goals and the loss of positive stimuli/presentation of negative stimuli. The ways in which community-level variables condition the impact of strain on crime are then examined.
Merton's macro-level theory of “social structure and anomie” has evolved into an individual-level “strain theory” that roots crime in the experience of blocked access to desired success goals. Empirical tests of strain theory have yielded mixed results, with the level of support varying by the measure used to operationalize strain. An adequate assessment of strain theory's utility is complicated further by the methodological limitations of existing studies. We attempt to identify issues that might allow for a more systematic test of strain theory, and we encourage criminologists to broaden their research agenda to explore the potentially criminogeists effects of a wide range of strainful life circumstances.
Self-reported delinquency data from a national youth panel were used to develop a career offender typology. Seven birth cohorts aged 11-17 at the first of five annual interviews provided the data for the study. The assumption that a career in delinquency implies continuity of involvement across time as well as the frequency with which illegal acts are committed was taken into account in the identification of four classes of offenders. The typology was validated using official arrest histories, social psychological predictor measures known to be associated with delinquent behavior, self-reported delinquency scales, and demographic variables. Offender typologies based upon official arrest and self-reported delinquency data were then compared. The findings indicate that the number of career offenders identified using official arrest data is only a fraction of the number identified using self-reported data. The partitioning of subjects into career offenders, noncareer offenders, and nonoffenders is quite different when using a self-reported compared to an official arrest measure of criminal involvement.
This essay, largely drawn from Elijah Anderson's forthcoming book, Code of the Street, offers an ethnographic representation of the workings of the code of the street in the context of the trying socioeconomic situation in which the inner-city black community finds itself, as jobs have become ever more scarce, public assistance has increasingly disappeared, and frustration has been building for many. The material presented here was gathered through many visits to various inner-city families and neighborhood settings, including carry-outs, laundromats, taverns, playgrounds, and street corners. In these settings, Anderson conducted indepth interviews with adolescent boys and girls, young men (some incarcerated, some not), older men, teenage mothers, and grandmothers. The structure of the community, and that community's extreme poverty, which is in large part the result of structural economic change, will be seen to interact in a way that facilitates the involvement of so many maturing youths in the culture of the streets, in which violence and the way it is regulated are key elements.
tise offers a first person yet analytical ac- count of life in the inner city. What Anderson describes is disturbing- it's a world wracked by violence and a general lack of de- cency. Like Thomas Hobbes' state of nature Anderson s inner city is a place where life is poor nasty, brutish , and short. The book begins with a stroll on Germantown Avenue. Chestnut Hill, located on the northwest edge of Philadelphia, is a mostly white area, with boutiques , clean streets, and polite people. Life has a happy buzz here; foul language, rude behavior, and violence are very rare. Anderson then walks readers further down Germantown Avenue toward the heart of Phila- delphia. Slowly but surely the scene changes. The number of Whites decreases , the number of Blacks increases. Check cashing joints and liquor stores multiply; pricey brick townhouses give way to unkept, dilapidated buildings with barred win- dows. Graffiti tags are everywhere and trash blows about the streets. The walk ends in the North Philadelphia ghetto, where crack zombies and drug-addicted prostitutes stagger the streets , children run amok and unsupervised, and people drink alcohol and smoke dope openly on the street. There s not a white man to be found. It's a great introduction to the book, for it shows the reader a spectrum of American life-from the 1990s white, wealthy, well-ordered, and urbane to the black, impov- erished, chaotic, and inner city. Most of the remaining 300 plus pages are devoted to describing life in this particular ghetto. In sum, a great number of inner-city residents appear to Anderson to be wholly uncivilized by engaging in obviously self- destructive , anti-so- SPRING 2000 cial behavior. Though some families and people have life nurturing cooperative lifestyles , Ander- son finds that most inner-city dwellers do not. They rob, they dope up, they brutalize. Young men father children and then disappear , preg- nant girls drop out of schools and have child after child, but spend their days watching televi- sion and getting high instead of being attentive mothers. Armed young men with hair trigger
The assumption that male dominance among Chicanos is exclusively a cultural phenomenon is contradicted by much evidence. A disturbing relationship exists between stratification axes of race, sex, and class; to the extent that social inequality limits men's access to resources, it also contributes to sexual stratification. (Author/GC)
This book provides a portrait of city life as observed by the author in an urban area encompassing two communities--one black, low income, and very poor (with an extremely high infant mortality rate) and the other racially mixed but becoming increasingly middle-to-upper income and white. It explores the dilemma of both Blacks and Whites, the ghetto poor and the middle class, who are caught up in the new struggle not only for common ground--prime real estate in a racially changing neighborhood--but for a shared moral community. The author shows that by living in the area, diverse residents often become increasingly familiar with one another, wise to the ways of the streets, and more adept at maneuvering in the urban environment. Specific areas examined include the impact of drugs within the community, sex codes and family life among the youth, street etiquette and wisdom, and the unique difficulties and attitudes associated with and towards the black male. An appendix provides some demographic variables from the urban community including housing, family income, and educational trends. Contains more than 150 references and an index. (GLR)
3 distinctive kinds of delinquent subcultures arise in lower-class areas of large urban centers as exemplified by the following groupings: (a) the "criminal gang"—devoted to theft, extortion, and other illegal means of securing an income; (b) the "conflict gang"—in which participation in acts of violence becomes an important means of securing status; and (c) the "retreatist gang"—which stresses the consumption of drugs and is marked by addiction. Major changes in the existing social setting of delinquency will have to be made before elimination or even control of the problem can be considered. Should the pressures within society which produce delinquent behavior remain the same, we cannot hope to stem the tide toward retreatism and violence among alolescents. An explanation of delinquency linking the thinking of Durkheim and Merton with that of Shaw, McKay, and Sutherland, which the authors call the theory of differential opportunity systems, is presented. From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:1JO20C. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Why is there a delinquent subculture to be taken over? The 5 sections in this volume develop a theory by which to account for the factors that determine membership in gangs with special reference to working-class children who come off second best when judged in school, for example, by middle-class standards. The delinquent subculture therefore satisfies the needs of those experiencing such frustrations. The final section deals with suggestions for research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
An extensive amount of criminological research has focused on the relationship between the inability of adolescents to achieve financial success or middle-class status through legitimate channels and their subsequent involvement in delinquency. This genre of research is commonly recognized as structural-strain theory. As the efficacy of this theory has periodically been questioned, this study addresses some of the methodological and theoretical issues associated with structural-strain theory. Using a sample of 8,338 adolescents from a southern state, we use a structural equations model to test a hypothesized sequence ultimately leading to delinquent behavior. We believe that this method is more appropriate than more traditional methods (e.g., multiple regression) for investigating some of the linkages specified in previous strain models. Our results support structural-strain theory, though the hypothesized model has more predictive power among European American than African American youth. Explanations are given for these differential findings, and recommendations for future studies are suggested.
Prior research on victimization in the United States has generally neglected two key areas—victimization among juveniles and young adults and the connection between offending and victimization. The research presented here fuses these two concerns by examining the effect of delinquent lifestyles on the criminal victimization of teenagers and young adults. An examination of longitudinal data from the first five waves of the National Youth Survey suggests that adolescent involvement in delinquent lifestyles strongly increases the risk of both personal and property victimization. Further, the analysis reveals that a significant proportion of the risk of victimization incurred by different demographic subgroups—especially males—results from greater involvement in lifestyles characterized by delinquency. The authors conclude that victimization patterns among youths cannot be understood apart from criminal and deviant activities.
Violent incidents arising out of trivial conflicts and insults have been explained by subcultural theories of violence, but empirical support for those theories has been lacking. Recent cognitively oriented research on anger and aggression is combined in this analysis with W. Wilson's (1987) arguments about the “truly disadvantaged” to revise those theories. An individual-level theory explains the violent incidents, and an aggregate level theory explains the distribution of those incidents among social groups. A subculture of angry aggression arises under conditions of social isolation, when multiple feedback loops result in concentration effects.
The present study examines the extent to which neighborhood and social psychological influences predict childhood violence among 867 African-American youth. The results showed that neighborhood affluence was the only neighborhood-level variable to exert a significant influence on childhood violence. Furthermore, childhood violence was significantly related to social psychological influences, such as adopting a street code, associating with violent peers, parental use of violence, and quality parenting. Overall, the findings suggested that simply living in a violent neighborhood does not produce violent children, but that family, peer, and individual characteristics play a large role in predicting violence in childhood.
This article addresses two issues that have received little attention in empirical research-the mechanisms explaining variation in violent delinquency within gender and variation in levels of violence across gender, or the gender gap. Toward these ends, the article synthesizes arguments from differential association theory, feminist theory, and gender studies. The outcome is a theoretical model of gender and violent delinquency that focuses on the interplay between structural positions and cultural processes. The theoretical model includes a core construct of differential association theory-the learning of definitions favorable to violence-as well as arguments about cultural definitions or meanings of gender and gender differences in the role of familial controls and peer influence, which are derived from feminist theory and gender studies. It then examines how these cultural processes are conditioned by structural positions. One of the key arguments is that the violent delinquency of females is controlled through rather subtle, indirect mechanisms, while the violence of males is controlled in more direct, overt ways. The results of the empirical analysis support the the-oretical arguments, contribute to the limited understanding of the variation in violent offending among females, and explain the sources of the gender gap in violent delinquency. The article thereby allows greater understanding of the broader phenomenon of juvenile violence.
Although numerous studies have examined the influence of neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage on the quantity of violence, little attention has been devoted to whether such conditions also shape the quality of violence. Drawing on Anderson's (1999) influential ethnography, we derive several hypotheses about how the nature of violence differs across neighborhoods with varying socioeconomic conditions. Using data on assaults and robberies from the area-identified National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), our analyses reveal support for Anderson's description of the nature of violence in different neighborhood contexts, but only mixed support for his argument that those differences are due to neighborhood effects.